UMD Baccalaureate Commencement
Largest in History
1,100 Students Participating

Saturday,
May 14
12 noon at the DECC

Richard Moe, President of National Trust for Historic Preservation,
to Speak and be Awarded Honorary Degree

Students' Family Members from 13 Foreign Countries Attending

Richard Moe, President of the National Trust for Historic Preservation,
and Duluth native, will be the featured speaker at UMD Baccalaureate
Commencement Ceremonies set for Saturday, May 4 at 12 noon at the Duluth
Entertainment and Convention Center (DECC). During the ceremonies, Mr
Moe will be awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree. The
honorary degree is the highest award conferred by the University of Minnesota,
recognizing individuals who have achieved acknowledged eminence in cultural
affairs, in public service, or in a field of knowledge and scholarship.
Mr. Moe will be honored for his national and international leadership
in historic preservation.

"UMD is very proud to present this well-deserved honor to Richard
Moe," said Chancellor Kathryn A. Martin. "His record of community
and public service spans more than 40 years, and his work for historic
preservation has brought him national recognition. He has launched important
efforts to demonstrate and document the effectiveness of preservation
as a tool for community revitalization, and has a deep commitment to
creating more livable communities for all Americans." (more about
Richard Moe later in this release)

Student speaker will be Rebecca Carlson, an honors graduate in the Labovitz
School of Business and Economics, from Danube, Minnesota.

Twenty-five international students will participate in the ceremonies.
This is a record number. Their family members from 13 foreign countries
will also be attending. Those countries include: Bangladesh, Bulgaria,
China, India, Japan, Korea, Madagascar, Mauritius, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan,
Sri Lanka, and Tanzania. (see below for individual contact information
for international students)
A reception for international graduates and their families will be held
following the commencement ceremonies in the Horizon Room at the DECC.

More About Richard Moe:
The National Trust for Historic Preservation, headquartered in Washington,
D.C., is the largest nonprofit preservation organization in the United
States. In the 11 years that he has served as president, Moe has revitalized
and expanded the National Trust's outreach to include renewal of inner
cities by limiting urban sprawl as well as preserving historically
significant buildings and neighborhoods. He has also ended the National
Trust's reliance on federal funds, raising more than $135 million through
private sources since funding ended five years ago.

A Duluth native, Moe has remembered his roots in Minnesota, where he
is actively involved in several preservation initiatives, from the "Save
the Guthrie" project in Minneapolis to the rehabilitation of the
historic lift bridge in Stillwater.
The National Trust has also included the City of Duluth in its Preservation
Development Initiative, which involved an eight-month, $100,000 study
of the city. The study, which was released this summer, concluded that
using historical preservation as a tool for community revitalization
has great potential for Duluth. During a July visit to Duluth, Moe addressed
the study's findings and vowed to do whatever he could to ensure that
historic preservation continues in his hometown.

Before taking over as president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation,
he served in a variety of administrative positions in city, state and
national government, culminating in serving as Chief of Staff for Vice
President Walter Mondale in Washington, D.C., from 1977 to 1981. Moe
earned his law degree from the University of Minnesota Law School in
1966, and he was a partner in a Washington, D.C., law firm from 1981
until becoming the seventh president of the National Trust in 1993.

In recognition of his efforts, Moe has received several national awards.
In 2002, the National Trust for Historic Preservation received the National
Humanities Medal from President Bush, the first time the medal was awarded
for historic preservation. Moe has also received the National Environmental
Partnership Award from the American Association of State and Highway
and Transportation Officials, and he has been named an honorary member
of the American Institute of Architects for his outstanding support of
the architecture profession.

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